Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me with a preseason training programme for rugby. It’ll start on 1st of June and I want to be peaking around late October. The season will last from October to March. My priorities are to gain some weight- I’m about a stone light(at about 165lbs) for my position at least; and I want to increase my speed over 10-20metres without losing too much stamina. Any suggestions for nutritional supplements also welcome-(whey powder?)
Can you post the program that you’re doing right now?
What position do you play?
If you want to increase your speed over 10 - 20m, there top two things you can do are to get strong (heavy squats) and run a lot of high quality short sprints.
xlr8
xlr8, do you think heavy cleans can have more of a carry-over effect to starting strength and explosiveness over the first 10 metres? (assuming the athlete is not lacking severely in limit strength)
No, I’m not sure cleans have any more carry over. Cleans and squats are both along the force/velocity continuum with sprints being at the far end. The sprints also have the advantage actually being specific. I think the cleans and squats are useful simply for developing the capacities necessary for sprinting fast.
If I was able to sprint and had to pick only one, (squats or cleans) then I would choose squats because I get the velocity component with the sprints and the limit strength with the squats. If I couldn’t sprint, then I would probably go with cleans to keep the explosiveness. Actually I would probably use snatches, but that is besides the point!
That said, I have had periods where I was injured and unable to sprint and I did both cleans and squats. When I got back on the track, I found that I had maintained my 10 and 20 times although the longer distances suffered. So perhaps it was the cleans?
xlr8
Thanks guys. David, regarding my present training programme, I took a break from rugby November last due to study commitments, and have been training irregularly-mostly just 20min runs and light weight sessions, so I still feel healthy! Prior to that my training schedule was something like;
Monday:
Track - Multi-sprints
Gym - Weights (chest etc.) reps8,6,4,2
Tuesday:
Gym - Weights (back etc.)
Field - Team training
Wednesday
Gym - Weights (legs)
Thursday:
Track - plyos/short sprints
Field - Team training
Friday:
off
Saturday:
Match day
Sunday:
Recovery - (pool/30min jog/squash)
PS - What is the carry-over effect?
You’re doing too much high intensity work each day, try reducing the volume of your upper body lifts an do chest/back work on Monday and do your plyo/short-sprints on the same day prior to your legs work.
Also, since you’re in the preseason stage right now, you could add another training day on Saturday.
What is your position? 165lb isn’t too bad for a halfback, flyhalf, winger or fullback.
Unfortunately I’m a hooker! - 165lbs is a very light. Did you mean to do plyos/short sprints on the same day as the leg weights, or the day before?
Same day as the leg weights so you get a break between Mon and Wed.
Yes, 165lb is very light for a hooker. Even if you were to put on mass very quickly, it is hard to imagine you putting on more than 10lb in a month (even then, it would become much more difficult to continue gaining lean mass during the season when you will be doing a huge volume of running). Hopefully if you are fast, agile and powerful enough, size won’t make too much of a difference in your general play (look at hooker Kevin Mealamu from Auckland Blues).